If you are wondering about how to lose weight with a carnivore diet this blog post is for you! I interviewed my friend Laura Spath who has lost 120 pounds by adopting a carnivore diet. She is 34 years old working mom of two kids. Her husband is also a carnivore. Going on a carnivore diet has helped her lose weight long-term and regain her health. She spent years doing yoyo dieting, going vegan, trying low carb, low calorie, and keto diet but she always gained the weight back again and went off whatever diet plan she was on but this time with the carnivore diet was different.
She is very passionate about helping others who want to try the carnivore way of eating by sharing her weight loss and healing journey here in this interview. We talk about her diet background and health issues that made her switch to a meat-based diet and how changes in health, experiences, and incredible results encouraged her to adopt this carnivore way of living long term.
Carnivore Diet Success Story by Laura Spath
Watch this video interview with Laura Spath where we talk about how carnivore way of eating has been the best way for her to lose weight and stay healthy. She explains how she approached carnivore diet and fasting. She shares with us insights about eating all the ribeyes, eating one meal a day (OMAD), fasting, consistency, and much more. We also go discussing satiety, sugar cravings, sweeteners, counting calories, macros, and valuable tips for those looking to lose weight and regain health with the Carnivore Diet.
What was your diet Before and why did you get started with wanting to lose weight?
As a girl, I had always been on the heavier side, especially through high school and college. I was raised on a standard American diet. My mom baked bread every day, and we had a lot of potatoes. Every holiday there was meat but also a lot of mid-western foods, like pasta and rice. I was introduced to junk food for the first time when I went to college. I went a little crazy and gained 30 pounds over my freshman year. That’s around the time, I started yoyo dieting where I would lose weight but then gain it all back.
By the time I graduated college, I had touched 200 pounds for the first time in my life. That made me realize I had to start a strict vegan diet. I was eating nothing but vegetables six times a day. It made me lose 50 pounds. I was running every day but also getting pretty drained. My whole life revolved around exercising, meal prep, and eating all the time. By the end of the year, I was so exhausted that my hair started falling out, and I had skin issues where acne would pop up all over my face out of nowhere. It was getting really hard to keep up with the vegan diet. Then on Christmas, I decided to eat a giant steak, and it made me feel so much better. Pretty soon, I started going back to my poor eating habits and junk-food diet. That period made me regain all the weight I had lost. And maybe I had added ten or fifteen pounds more.
Around 8 years ago, I met my husband, Chris. He and I met when we were both overweight, we have gained and lost hundreds of pounds over the last 8 years together. At that time, I was 220 pounds. Then, I gained fifty extra pounds during my first pregnancy. There was a lot of ice cream involved. But even then, I was conscious of being healthy. I used to start the morning with a big spinach fruit smoothie with all the chia seeds, but by evening I was like “Forget it, I’m pregnant, I want to have some ice cream.”
And after I had my daughter around 5 years ago, I decided to be a lot more serious and started a strict low-carb diet. But it was a lot of processed food. I had low-carb tortillas, cauliflower pizza, and stuff like that. It was all ingredient-heavy stuff, to be honest. I lost a lot of weight and came down to 170 pounds which was the lowest I had ever been. And I thought I would never have to go above that scale again. But then I lost discipline and gained back all the weight I had lost. By the time I was pregnant with my son, I weighed 200 pounds. During the time I was on a low-carb diet, I found I had trouble nursing my daughter because my milk supply was really running low and it was probably because of all the restrictive diet I was having.
How was your experience with the Keto diet and what made you try the carnivore diet?
I and my husband, Chris started experimenting with the ketogenic diet with lots of tracking. We used to eat a quest bar and observed that it kicks us out of ketosis so we scrapped them. We ate low-carb tortillas and feel bloated afterward so we scrapped those too. And so, on our own, little by little, we eliminated all the processed foods. I started adding intermittent fasting along with it. Though I lost 20 to 30 pounds in a month, my weight loss stalled and I was still having lots of digestive issues.
I heard of the Carnivore Diet; it was eye-opening. My husband jumped on to the Carnivore because he hated vegetables and loved meat. I thought he was crazy and worried that he would never poop again (laughs).
But I started doing my research too. I watched YouTube videos and listened to a lot of podcasts that sparked my interest to take the plunge. I read about plant toxins and the benefits of a high protein all-meat no plant diet. I liked the concept that I would be able to eat more nutrient-dense foods without anti nutrients and inflammatory factors from plant foods.
What differences you have experienced after switching to a carnivore diet?
Along the way I found Carnivore, things finally clicked. My hormones started balancing quite a bit. My digestion and acne cleared up upon cutting veggies. My hair started coming back when I switched to the carnivore diet and started keeping up with that protein intake. I saw the results and became more confident.
I realized I was eating a lot more, enjoying what I was eating, and also losing weight. When I had been on keto, I always had cravings to eat something. But with the carnivore diet, I was able to not go back to my old ways of eating and gain all my weight back. I stopped being tortured by all the weight loss and diet food and finally enjoyed eating my meals! And not feeling hungry is a big plus. I feel a lot fuller and more satisfied, and this is what I think has given me the most discipline to stick with it.
Do you think you’ll be able to stick with it now that you’re a lot more satisfied?
Absolutely. If you would have told me a year and a half ago that I would be eating nothing but rib-eye steak for the rest of my life, I would have thought you were crazy. But the main thing is how it makes me feel. The diet has done a lot of good for my skin and digestive issues. I enjoy eating so much that I feel no restriction in what I’m eating. It’s crazy to think that you can eat such a small variety of foods but not feel like it’s being restrictive. I feel freedom in restriction and it is the place where I am most healthy.
A lot of people are going to be thinking about what you do with your kids. If you’re also getting them to explore the Carnivore Diet with your husband and you?
At this point, we make our kids eat a clean, whole foods diet. We focus on feeding them high protein meals three times a day. Lots of chicken, beef, and eggs. They do sometimes eat vegetables and fruits and nuts too. What we focus the most on is just keeping grains, sugars, and seed oils out of their diet.
I hear you go to the gym sometimes. What is your approach to working out?
I would never have thought in my life that I would be someone who would go to the gym, or look forward to going to it. I mean I am still not a crazy gym person. But it really is nice to have some alone time working out. Currently I am taking weight-lifting classes two times a week, maybe three times if my schedule allows it. It’s like an hour-long class where you get to train your muscle groups to different songs. It’s fun.
Do you think it was mostly the carnivore diet or the exercise that made you lose weight more?
Since I had already lost 80 pounds before setting foot in any gym, I am tempted to say it was mostly the diet. It does not need to be your priority at all. I would say it is better to first get your diet in line and worry about the exercises second.
What is your approach to the carnivore diet? What are your eating habits now?
I personally eat once a day and make sure to stick to beef only. An ideal day for me is when I can get to have a two-pound grilled Ribeye steak at noon, and then nothing else the rest of the day. I feel like this approach works best for me. I did try to change foods on certain days by trying varieties, but that tended to leave me with stress and cravings. It would make me regret not having a steak. But with a grilled Ribeye, at least I feel more satisfied and have the least cravings. And it’s pretty delicious.
What is your experience with One Meal A Day (OMAD) and Fasting on the Carnivore diet?
I like it honestly for convenience. It stresses out the complex process involved in cooking your meals and saves tons of time that spends on sourcing recipes, ingredients, preparing meals, and doing clean up. But it is still very nice to sit with my kids when they eat and I don’t have to eat anything.
My tendency always was just to overeat. I struggled with overeating almost all my life. But I have found that fasting with a carnivore diet has been the key to weight loss and healing for me. It has helped me overcome my food addiction, overeating tendencies, mindless eating, and those non-stop emotional eating tendencies.
Do you ever get tired of meat as lots of people complain that they become sick of eating meat even at the beginning of the carnivore diet? Does that ever happen to you?
No, If I try eating something besides beef, I always regret it. I just want to have a good piece of steak. Even if I tried to have chicken, I feel like I should make myself shrimp or fish and by the end of the day, I regret what if I would rather have a steak. There is something about chewing a steak that just makes me feel satisfied. I just don’t regret it when I don’t force myself to variety. I have tried eggs but every time I eat eggs, I feel like I haven’t actually eaten anything because they are so easy to eat. I love eggs but I like to just feel satisfied with chewing beef. I feel eggs are more like a side dish and sometimes I dip my steak in it or have it more on the side.
Did you ever have to get worried about nutritional deficiencies?
No, just based on the results and how amazing I feel. it does not make me feel worried about it. I had people around me who were concerned about my nutritional needs when I was getting started with the carnivore diet. I think if I would feel at all off or bad, I would address it and look into it, and get tested but at this time I am confident in the quality of the meat that I am eating. Also because of the research, I have done I believe that how nutrient-dense it is.
I feel like I have spent times being nutrient deficient in my life before and I know what it feels like in some ways. I believe in the science behind the fact that you can not absorb any nutrition out of spinach and the fact that I have spent so many of those years drinking spinach smoothies and trying to be healthy that way but finally realized that it was the reason my hair was falling as I was having massive nutrient deficiency and my body was starving of nutrients at that point.
What are some of the benefits that Carnivore Diet has brought to your life?
The most obvious one is the weight loss, but other than that the improvements that I have seen with my anxiety, stress levels, and digestion issues are amazing. My skin is more clear now and my hair feels a lot more strong and healthier. Until me and my husband has found a carnivore way of eating and made it a lifestyle for our family, we have seen many improvements to our overall health. We do not need our long list of doctors and specialists anymore. We both were sick with many health issues but now we are free from those countless medications that we were on. Chris completely reversed his Type 2 Diabetes and has been off all medications for 2 years.
It has been 3 years now since I get started on this weight loss journey with the carnivore diet. Though I have had setbacks along the way, this is the first time I have not given up on myself and it has made all the difference. I am free of the roller coaster of carbs and weight gain where I always sort of used to lose 20 and gain 30 again. Now I am able to maintain the weight loss and focus on consistency and health, and the scale hasn’t moved much at all. I am grateful for the balance I am finding with the carnivore way of eating and the peace it gives to me.
Read my carnivore diet success story here.
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